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Shia Altman

UNESCO, Part Deux

After embarrassing itself last week, UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization), apparently not considering itself sufficiently ridiculous, voted today on yet another resolution delegitimizing Jewish and world history. This latest resolution entitled, “Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls” again only refers to the Temple Mount by its Muslim name.

There were a couple changes from the previous resolution. This time, it did not refer to Israel as the “occupying Power” [sic] as last week’s did, or place Western Wall in quotes – even denying Judaism’s connection to that Herodian piece of real estate. As if the changes were supposed to make things more acceptable to millions upon millions of Christians and Jews.

The Palestinian Authority and Jordan threatened “other options” if the resolution it pushed was not approved unanimously. The resolution was adopted with ten voting in favor, two against, and eight abstaining. Once again, Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General, criticized the one-sided biased attack on history.

There are world leaders condemning the UNESCO resolutions, but the US “leader” remained silent. Heaven forbid Barack Obama should support Israel, even when it comes to the Western Wall. Only a couple weeks before, the White House “corrected” Obama’s Shimon Peres memorial speech by removing “Israel,” from “Jerusalem, Israel.” So what is one to expect?

Before I go on, in case you don’t know, former Labor Prime Minister Ehud Barak blamed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the UNESCO vote saying it was, “Netanyahu’s monumental failure on the international front.”

This is just as absurd as when Yitzchak Herzog, the leftist leader who ran against Netanyahu in the last Israeli election, who by the way, said about the Iran nuclear agreement that it was, “a horrible deal, one that will go down as a tragedy of the ages.” said after the PM’s speech to the US Congress, that the Israeli PM failed in allowing the Iran deal to go through without doing everything possible to stop it.

What else is Netanyahu to do? Punch Obama and other world leaders in their noses? Such nonsense from the Israeli left!

Now I have had a number of conversations with people about the UNESCO debacle, and I call it that, because I believe the organization did itself great harm. Will anyone take it seriously now? Will anyone think it is not simply another political mouthpiece of the corrupt Israel-hating United Nations?

Interestingly, there were those of the opinion that it was much ado about nothing and that Israel and its supporters looked bad. I can agree with the “much ado” part, and in fact, even “much ado about nothing,” the nothingness of UNESCO. Those who exclaimed outrage at this latest outrage had to “ado.” It was important to “ado.”

The pernicious resolutions along with their hateful sponsors had to be exposed. The resolutions are not just anti-Israel, they are anti-Semitic, because they deny everything that makes the Jewish people Jewish. We have a religion that is historical in nature. That history is also what makes us a nation. It is why the Jewish state is called The Jewish State and why it is where it is. Only the most sinister and the most repugnant dispute that.

Anti-Semitism isn’t new, for sure. But the existence of the State of Israel gives license to the latest Jew haters, who simply say, “I don’t hate Jews, I hate Israel.” Or, “I don’t hate Jews, I hate Zionists or Zionism.” After the Holocaust, it was made more difficult to hate Jews outright, because of the obviousness of it all, even though many still did. But now the racists can come out of the woodwork, and resolutions from UNESCO or wherever, no matter how silly, only make matters worse. And they must be called out.

Years ago when I was working at an aerospace firm, one of my co-workers, in criticizing Israel, said it always went too far, disproportionately retaliating for acts against it. “One little thing and the Israeli Air Force goes nuts. The Israelis always seem to make such a big deal about everything.” He wanted to know why.

Aside from questioning the “little things” and asking him what he felt would be proportionate, I had to explain about, not the Jewish people’s ancient past, but most recent past, the Holocaust, genocide committed in the enlightened 20th century. “Never Again” meant exactly that, and Israel would deem each of its citizens’ lives precious. Jews would no longer allow themselves to be murdered without consequences to the murderers, no matter the number of innocents killed, and the world needed to know.

Were there not a State of Israel, there would be anti-Semitism of course, but it would be obvious that it was Jew-hatred and not some kind of acceptable Israel or Zionism hatred. There is no better example of the abominable Jew-hatred fusion between the Jewish people and Israel than these despicable resolutions. They speak for themselves and so, we must speak out against them.

About the Author
Shia Altman who hails from Baltimore, MD, now lives in Los Angeles. His Jewish studies, aerospace, and business and marketing background includes a BA from the University of Maryland and an MBA from the University of Baltimore. When not dabbling in Internet Marketing, Shia tutors Bar and Bat Mitzvah, and Judaic and Biblical Studies to both young and old.
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